8-year-old helps mom deliver baby brother at home

by Jay Dillon

Thanks to a 911 dispatcher, an 8-year-old girl helped her mother deliver a baby boy while waiting for paramedics to arrive at their Tampa Bay-area home.Kyrstle Garcia went into labor Monday morning while at her home. She quickly knew what to do."I was in the bathroom and my water broke and I yelled for her. 'Jazmine grab the cordless phone. Dial 911,'" Garcia said.The dispatcher alerted paramedics, but they weren't quick enough to get there before the baby started to arrive, two weeks early.Authorities say the dispatcher "expertly and compassionately" talked Garcia and her daughter Jazmine through the delivery of the baby. During an eight-minute call, Jazmine calmly relays the dispatcher's instructions to her mother, gets towels and other items and secures the baby's head."She is in so much pain," Jazmine says at one point during the call.When paramedics arrived, they took the baby and Garcia to a hospital. Authorities say both are doing fine. The baby was named Joseph James Snyder.Garcia later said she was proud of Jazmine for handling the stress so well, with the help of the dispatcher."She definitely stayed calm when she needed to. I was hysterical," Garcia said.The Associated Press contributed to this report.